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AntiVirus for 8 systems

penfold
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 2,280
Thanks: 25
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎01-08-2007

AntiVirus for 8 systems

My father has asked me to look at the local community centres network. They have 8 systems, 5XP home, 3 Win2K pro, networked peer to peer, for printer and internet sharing. ( 4 port router, and a network hub as well).  Some issues have been noted with the PC sharing, but to cut a long story short, the system was set up at least over 5 years ago, and their antivirus package was Macafee, but they have never purchased any renewals, and therefore have not been protected for nigh on 4 years at least!!!  Also windows XP is still at SP1, as the auto updates were disabled. They seem to think they can use AVG free, but I have told them this would be illegal, as its free only for personal use. They are a charitable organisation, and my question is, whats the best package out there for antivirus, with at least 8 licences??  Is the pro version of AVG anygood, or is there something better out there.  They now realise that all systems are well out of date, and probably need refoprmatting and reinstalling. I have tried to convince then maybe a server client setup would be better, but no joy.  Anyone any advice as to the antivirus issue, and altough they have a hardware firewall in the router, would a software firewall also ne a good idea, as well.
6 REPLIES 6
Denzil
Grafter
Posts: 1,733
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: AntiVirus for 8 systems

You could try <a href="http://www.clamwin.com/">Clamwin</a>. It is open source and free for anybody. With 8 PCs I would stick with peer to peer. It is easier to setup and look after.
It sounds like they could also do with some training on basic internet security! The firewall in the router should protect them from most intrusions, but it is still a good idea to run a software firewall on each PC as well.
Njal
Grafter
Posts: 290
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: AntiVirus for 8 systems

AVG offer a discount to charities:
http://www.avg.com/44
"AVG is proud of our long-standing record and commitment to supporting schools, charities, and government organizations, which are typically under tight budget constraints, by offering discounts on our AVG products."
Regards,
Neil
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
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Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: AntiVirus for 8 systems

I wonder if they are keeping any personnel data on people  if they are then they should be registered with the Data Protection act and this requires the data is kept secure. Lots of charities fall foul of this as they often keep lots of data on people without realizing they do so. Some of this data may be very sensitive if they have help someone the data maybe very personnel depending on the charities function.

If there is sensation data then a server  is the way forward as this gives you some control on who can access the network and the data as it is I would suspect any old tom dick or harry can gain access. Most charities forget there maybe financial data on the pc's that should be protected. If they resist a server tell them its a legal requirment
7up
Community Veteran
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: AntiVirus for 8 systems

Quote from: samuria
I wonder if they are keeping any personnel data on people 

Who? AVG or the networked place?
AVG certainly will. The only thing is they're not a british company as i understand and so won't be under restricted by the DPA.
I need a new signature... i'm bored of the old one!
penfold
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 2,280
Thanks: 25
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: AntiVirus for 8 systems

Samuria
There is certainly no sensitave or pesonal data at all on any of these machines......  All they are used for is Sharing internet access, running computer classes, and using a couple of shared printers. All users also have limited account access, with the Builtin Admin and other admin account password protected, and the systems are set to autologin to the limited account. I was just worried for them that the systems would be slowed to a crawl and be very unusuable if they have no decent antivirus etc software.
samuria
Grafter
Posts: 1,581
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Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: AntiVirus for 8 systems

Sharing internet access so what nasties are in the cache you will be surprised what you can find?
They could have enter all sorts of data in the cache. The best thing for this is to freeze the pc's get deep freeze from
http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp
Its ideal for this situation as no matter what you do like delete windows directory stuff up the register get a virus you turn off the pc and its back to being a fully working pc again. Watch the demo on the site. It means you dont need any AV as it cant do any damage you dont need updates as restart it and it will all ways work.
All data is gone when the pc is rebooted so no personnel data is left on the pc but you can set it to save some data thats needed like my docs. I have used it a lot and you get no support calls as restart and it works as they have no support  its great.